hope when the water rises
by kathillards
Summary: Conner kind of hates them before he even meets them. ―- Dino Thunder and their legacy.


**hope when the water rises**

 _hope when you take that jump, you don't fear the fall_  
 _hope when the water rises, you built a wall_  
 _hope when the crowd screams out, they're screaming your name_  
 _hope if everybody runs, you choose to stay_

― one republic, i lived

* * *

Conner kind of hates them before he even meets them.

It's unfair, he knows, to hate people you don't even know, but he does. He hates the way they haunt him, the way they linger around the edges of everything he does, or Ethan does, or Kira does. Trent gets it a little easier because his only ghost is Dr. O, and he's living and breathing and on their team.

But not him, no. He gets _Jason forgave me when I was evil, why can't you forgive Trent?_ and his gut response is _Fuck Jason I'm not Jason just because I wear the same damn color_. He gets _Rocky was a class clown too but he focused and studied hard and graduated with honors_ and he wants to punch this Rocky in the face.

 _You're too violent, Conner_ and _Martial arts are for self-defense only, Conner_ and _Why can't you be better, Conner? Why can't you be Jason?_

-:-

It's not all Dr. O's fault, either. Sometimes, he'll overhear him talking to Hayley about his old teammates with that wistful nostalgic look on his face that always means he's lost in the past. Sometimes, Hayley will say things like: _They'll grow into their roles_ and _Rocky would love hanging out with Conner_ and he hates himself a little more for hating them.

And then sometimes he'll end up in the lab late at night watching video footage of the originals fighting monsters and his mind will make a checklist of all the ways Jason or Rocky or Zack or Dr. O himself were better fighters than him at a younger age and all the ways he could be better but _isn't_ and how easily they all meld into being a team when it took him and Kira and Ethan ages to even _start_ acting like a team let alone accepting Trent into it.

It's like trying to fill the shoes of giants. He feels tiny and awkward and unremarkable in every way. Jason smiles in the video, honest and earnest and proud of his team, and Conner aches for the feeling of knowing he's a good leader.

-:-

He hates them. He hates how everything he has was theirs first. The dinosaur zords. The color scheme. The evil ranger crisis. The nerd in blue. The girl with a pterodactyl spirit. Everything that's _his_ and _Ethan's_ and _Kira's_ belonged to _them_ before they even touched the dino gems.

Most days, it doesn't matter. Most days, he gets on with it. Fights the monsters. Saves the world. Doesn't complain (much). He has Kira and Ethan, anyway, and sort of Trent, and most of the time Dr. O, so it works out.

He doesn't even care, really. Just sometimes it gets under his skin. An itch he can't reach. A hero he can never be.

-:-

He definitely does _not_ want to meet Jason in person, but Hayley doesn't leave him much choice.

"He has some files I need for the lab and I'm way too busy to drive to Angel Grove and, please, Conner, it'll only take a few hours and it'll be quick, I promise."

Trent offers to go with him. That somehow makes it worse.

"I'm driving," he says sullenly and spends the entire two-hour trip to Angel Grove listening to the radio and pretending not to notice that Trent is texting the entire awkward experience to Kira.

-:-

On the way to Jason's front door, a bout of nervousness seizes him. He doesn't say anything, but he thinks Trent picks up on it, because he tries to lighten the mood.

"Y'know, if Dr. O wouldn't assign us so many papers that he has to grade, he could have done this himself."

Conner snorts, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Like hell. He wants this to be a lesson for us on how to be the perfect rangers or whatever."

Trent glances at him side-long. "You think he doesn't think we're good enough rangers compared to his old friends?" The question starts off skeptical but slowly fades into hurt. Conner winces.

"I don't know," he admits, coming to a stop in front of a dark red door. "It just kind of feels that way sometimes."

"Yeah," Trent sighs. "I know what you mean." Then, before Conner can work up the nerve, he lifts his hand and raps twice on the door.

-:-

It's not Jason who opens the door. Conner and Trent both stare in confusion when a pretty blonde woman wearing a red shirt and – well, not much else – stands on the other side of the threshold, surveying them in equal confusion.

Her face brightens in recognition before theirs do. "Oh, hi! You must be Conner and Trent, from Reefside, right?" Her accent is Australian. Somehow, he hadn't been expecting that.

"Uh," Conner says eloquently, trading glances with Trent. "Yeah, that's us. I'm Conner. This is Trent. We're, um, here for Jason? And some files?"

"Right, yeah, he mentioned you'd be coming by," she says, stepping aside so they can enter. "Sorry, we thought the drive would take you guys a little longer, or we'd be more prepared."

Conner blinks, trying to place her. He's definitely seen her face before somewhere. She realizes she hasn't introduced herself right when the name pops into his head.

"Oh, I completely forgot to introduce myself!" she says with a laugh. "I'm Katherine – you can call me Kat. I served with Tommy for a few years. Please, have a seat."

"You're pink…right?" Trent asks, a little uncertainly as he eyes her red shirt. Conner's been trying not to look because the last thing he wants to do is check out _Dr. O's_ old teammate, even if she is really pretty.

Kat nods. "I was three different pinks, actually. Hang on, let me get Jason – he was taking a shower. Please, make yourselves at home."

Conner looks at Trent, who looks at him, and then they both look at the living room. Conner sits down on a red recliner while Trent claims a black couch nearby. The two of them sit in awkward silence for exactly two minutes, not that he's counting, until Jason appears.

Kat's behind him, having changed into a pink dress while she was gone, but Conner finds himself focused on Jason. His hair is still wet from his shower, and his shirt is unbuttoned, clearly having been put on in a rush, and mostly, he looks normal. A regular guy living in a regular house with his regular – girlfriend, or whatever. Conner doesn't see anything special about him at all.

Then Jason smiles, and he catches a glimpse of the boy who toppled evil empires when he was fifteen. Raced into a different dimension to save his best friend. Forgave the enemy. Saved the world.

"Conner, right?" he says, walking over to Conner is standing and offering him his hand. "Nice to finally meet you guys. And you must be Trent?"

"That's us," Trent affirms, shaking his hand after Conner does. "Hayley sent us for some files you owe her?"

Jason chuckles. "Yeah, I've got those lying around. Are you guys in a hurry? We were just about to have our morning coffee, if you wanted to join us."

Trent says, "Sure," before Conner can blurt out something like, _No, we don't need to spend any more time in the presence of the great and incomparable original red ranger, thanks_.

So, they stay for coffee.

-:-

He realizes he's being dumb – well, he knew it before, but he realizes it again halfway through coffee at the breakfast nook with Jason and Kat when Trent asks them if they still keep in touch with Dr. O.

"Emails," says Jason vaguely as Kat frowns into her coffee. "We have this, ahem, encrypted network that we keep in contact through. He's pretty busy these days, though. And we haven't had a proper reunion since… I wanna say '02?"

Kat hits him on the shoulder. "That wasn't a reunion, that was a death mission."

Conner and Trent both turn to stare at her, so she elaborates, "Ten red rangers went to the moon to fight Serpentera."

"Only eight came back," Jason said in a mock-ominous tone. Conner and Trent both turn to stare at _him_ and he laughs. "Don't worry about it. Leo and Aurico don't live on Earth."

"Leo and…Aurico?" Trent asks faintly. It occurs to Conner that, even having watched the video of power ranger history, there's still so much he doesn't know, so many people who are part of this legacy – a legacy that started with _Jason_ – that he has never met. He's only the latest link in a chain that stretches for years. It's humbling, and also kind of terrifying.

"Oh, we'll have to tell you the story of the alien rangers some time," Kat laughs. "It was a long few weeks. Or months. Hard to tell, there was a lot of time stream issues."

There's a moment of companiable silence – at least on their part, Conner presumes – before he finally breaks it to ask the question he's been dying to blurt out since he recognized Kat.

"Didn't you and Dr. O use to date?"

The companiable silence quickly fades to awkward silence. Trent kicks him under the table. Jason and Kat exchange looks that he can't decipher but seem halfway between amused and annoyed.

"Yes," Kat says carefully. "We broke up several years ago, but yes. How did you know?"

Conner shifts in his seat. "I, uh, kind of found his Kat box. By accident. In the lab."

Kat stares at him. "He… has a _Kat_ box?"

"Yeah, he has a Kim box, too," he admits out of a need to be honest. The look on Kat's face gets even more indecipherable. "They have, like, pictures and stuff. I don't know. I never found any other boxes, though, so I guess he only had two girlfriends."

Jason snorts. "He's had more than that," he says, but glances at Kat sidelong as if he's afraid to say the wrong thing. "I mean, last I heard, anyway."

"All he'll tell us is that he never dated Hayley," Trent says, then adds, super casually, "So, is he cool with you two?"

Conner tries not to laugh at the looks on Kat and Jason's faces.

"Cool with us?" Kat echoes. "I… well."

"We haven't exactly told him," Jason explains, wincing a little. "It's… been a while since we've seen him, y'know. And… well, it's kind of hard to just bring up in conversation."

"Shoot him an email," Conner can't resist suggesting, " _Hey, so, I'm banging your ex-girlfriend. Wanna get drinks later?_ "

Jason and Kat stare at him for a moment, long enough to make him wonder if maybe joking around wasn't the smartest thing to do at this moment, and then they both start laughing.

"I think he'll take it well," Trent adds, grinning, and Conner smiles.

-:-

"Here are the files," Jason says to him later once they've cleared the table. Trent and Kat are in the kitchen talking about nothing that makes sense to Conner, and he's been loitering in the living room waiting for Jason to return. Nothing about the day has gone quite how he planned, but he finds it's a nice feeling nonetheless.

"Thanks," he says, accepting the USB drive Jason gives him. "And, uh, thanks for the coffee. It was nice."

"Yeah, anytime," Jason chuckles, moving around to lean against the back of the couch where he can smile at Kat through the arch. "Dino reds gotta stick together, right?"

Conner hasn't thought of it that way before. "Yeah, I – yeah," he says, a little feebly, and offers him a smile back. "What are Trent and Kat talking about? I've been trying to get his attention for, like, five minutes."

Jason snorts. "I think about being evil. It's common ground, you know. Not exactly something he can talk with most people about."

Conner hasn't thought of _that_ either. "Oh," he says. "That – that makes sense. I guess. I mean, he could talk to us but… wait, she was evil?"

"Oh, yeah, it was a whole thing," Jason says, waving his hand to encapsulate the story. "I wasn't actually there, but I heard about it later. It was really bad. Though, most of us have been evil or cursed to do bad things at some point or the other."

Conner stares at him surprise. " _Really_?" Dr. O had never mentioned anything of the sort, outside of his own experiences being evil. Never a word about Jason, the fearless leader, the original red, being evil.

"Tommy didn't tell you?" Jason asks, raising an eyebrow. "Kim and I came back to Angel Grove for a vacation, ended up kidnapped and turned evil, fought the Turbo rangers and kicked their asses, if I do say so myself."

"I… have never heard about that," Conner says slowly. "Does that sort of thing happen a lot?"

"Oh, all the time," Jason says. "Has it not happened to you guys?"

"Uh, Kira got cursed by some evil dinosaur skeleton once, but that was about it," Conner admits. "I guess… we never really thought about it. Or, I mean, _I_ never really thought about it."

He trails off thoughtfully, staring at Trent and his animated conversation with Kat. It hadn't occurred to him that even people like Jason and Kat, who seemed to be about the coolest people, regardless of how much he'd wanted to dislike them, could have been turned evil. That it could happen to any ranger, even the best of them.

Trent finally turns to look at him, a grin on his face that Conner hasn't seen in a while. "Ready to go?" he asks, and it finally hits Conner that maybe, just maybe, Trent _was_ one of the best of them, too.

-:-

"How'd you guys like meeting Jason?" Tommy asks them that evening when the team is gathered in an empty Cyber Café, having a mini victory party after having defeated Mesogog's latest monster.

"He was great," Trent says before Conner can formulate his thoughts. "Super cool guy. He offered us free lessons at his dojo whenever we want them. All of us."

"I might take him up on that," Ethan sighs, massaging his sore shoulder. "Did you meet anyone else? Do the originals all stay in touch or what?" This question is directed at Dr. O, who stares into his coffee for a moment instead of answering.

"Mostly," he says vaguely, under everyone's questioning gazes. Conner and Trent trade looks, debating silently whether or not to tell him. His brow furrows. "Why, did Jason say something?"

"There was something about an email program," Conner says diplomatically, and Hayley laughs. Not so diplomatically, he adds, "And, yeah, some of them keep in touch. His girlfriend was a pink, actually."

Dr. O's head shoots up. Hayley cringes and sinks into her chair, probably in preparation. "He has a girlfriend?"

"So, you _don't_ keep in touch?" Kira asks, half-teasing, half-accusing.

"He… failed to mention that," Dr. O says, narrowing his eyes at Conner and Trent. "Who was it?"

"Oh, uh, I think her name was… Kaylie? Kate?" Trent pretends to consider the question. "Katelyn?"

Dr. O sighs. Hayley's shoulders are shaking from repressed laughter. " _Trent_."

"You didn't tell us you dated two pink rangers," Conner points out. "I feel like that's important information."

"It most certainly is not," Dr. O says quickly. "How do you know they're dating? She might have just been visiting him, Kat likes to do that."

"Well, she was wearing his shirt when we met her," Conner says bluntly, grinning when Dr. O's face goes all funny. "So, I think it's a safe bet. Seriously, she was super hot, why would you let her go?"

"Please don't call my teammates super hot," Dr. O says wearily. Hayley makes a noise that could be anything between a laugh and a sob.

Conner leans back in satisfaction as Ethan and Kira jump on Dr. O with questions, trading a fist bump with Trent. The best part is, undoubtedly, that Dr. O can't even give them detention for making fun of him.

-:-

A few months after they defeat Mesogog, when they've all settled into colleges across the country, he finds an invitation in his email – on the secret encrypted network, naturally – to a ranger reunion in Angel Grove. The RSVP button is glaring at him from the screen as he picks up his phone to dial Ethan.

"Hey, did you – "

"Get the invite? Yeah," Ethan says with a best friend's knack for immediately knowing the question. "You coming?"

"I don't know," he says uncertainly. "I've been trying to set up this soccer camp and it's eating up a lot of my time, plus…"

"Nervous?" Ethan asks knowingly. "Yeah, me, too. You know Dr. O kept telling me about the first blue ranger, Billy Cranston, how he was a super genius just like me? And he lives on a fucking alien planet with his alien girlfriend. Like, what am I supposed to do with that? I don't know any of these people."

"Ninja Storm said they might be going," Conner points out, scrolling through the list of invitees and their responses. "But, yeah, I know what you mean. I only met Jason once and I still don't know how to act around him. It's like, what do you say to a guy who started a legacy when you were in diapers?"

Ethan snorts. "We were six, but sure. Wanna conference in Kira?"

Conner rolls his eyes and presses the button obligingly. Kira picks up after five rings, which is about typical since she started working on her demo record.

"Is this about the invite? Because Tori already called me and she wants to know if we're going because we're the only other people they know," Kira says right off the bat.

Conner laughs. "That makes all of us," he says wryly. "Why is it so hard to talk to these people? They're just like us, right?"

"I heard every team from Wild Force to the originals knows each other," Kira explains. "They've all teamed up somehow, some way. But the ninjas never met Wild Force, just us. And all we have is them and Dr. O and he's – "

"Yeah," Ethan sighs, because Kira doesn't have to finish her sentence for them to understand. "Did you know I saw Kim on TV the other day? She was doing an interview as an Olympic veteran. Gold medals and all that. It's hard to believe she was one of us."

"And she _dated_ Dr. O," Conner adds, making a face at his computer screen. The box next to _Kimberly Hart_ is green for going. "Can you believe that? She is _so_ out of his league."

"Don't be mean," Kira chastises, but there's a smile in his voice that makes him think she agrees. "What I can't believe is that he never introduced us to any of them, besides that one time. I don't even know anything about Trini other than that video we saw, and she was the _original_ yellow."

"Haven't you met Tanya?" Ethan asks curiously.

"Oh, yeah, but that was thanks to Hayley, and only because she was a singer, too, not just because she was a _yellow_ ," Kira says as if this makes a world of difference. "I mean, it was amazing. She's amazing. And I met Adam, too. But still… talking to her singer-to-singer is one thing. Talking to her _yellow-to-yellow_ is completely different."

"Wasn't there one in between her and Trini?" Conner asks thoughtfully. It's itching at him; it's been ages since he watched the history of the power rangers video.

"Uh… Aisha?" Ethan suggests. "I think that was her name. Doesn't she live in Africa now?"

There's a sound like Kira smacking her head on a desk. "Why does he never _tell us these things_?"

The three of them ruminate on this silence for a minute until Conner speaks. "I think we should go."

"What, really?" Ethan asks in surprise. "You want to go?"

"Yeah, I mean, why not? We should meet them all at some point, right? And we can hang out, and we'll get to see the ninjas again. And maybe the originals will have embarrassing stories about Dr. O."

Kira giggles. "Tanya did tell me this great story of when she and him were cursed to sing everything they said for an entire day."

Ethan brightens immediately. "I'll book the next flight out."

Conner laughs. "I'll see you guys there."

-:-

At the party, he finds his team first, outside the door to the Space rangers' mansion, which is apparently a safe house in Angel Grove for all the other teams. Ninja Storm appears next to them in flashes of color before any of them can even knock on the door.

"Can you believe the originals are dino rangers _and_ ninja rangers?" Shane complains by way of greeting, dropping in behind Conner and settling an arm on his shoulder. "That doesn't seem fair."

"Not all of them," Trent points out sensibly. "Just…six of them."

"Seven," Cam corrects. "Two pink rangers." He pushes past the rest of them and knocks on the door before anyone else can beat him to it. "Nice to see you guys again, by the way," he adds with pointed looks at his teammates.

"Man, come on, nobody has time for formalities when we're about to face _the original rangers_ ," Dustin complains as everyone laughs. The door swings open, cutting off the one moment of calm Conner has felt the entire night thus far. Behind the doorway stands TJ Johnson, Earth's fourth red, and he's starting to feel dizzy already.

TJ cuts an impressive figure, tall, dark, and handsome in the golden glow of the lights beyond him. He smiles easily, though, opening the door wide to let them in. "Welcome to the party. You guys must be the ninjas and the dinos, right? I'm TJ, it's great to finally meet you."

"Ninjas," Hunter says, shaking his hand as he and the rest of his team pass by. "'Cept Cam, he's just weird." Cam hits him in the arm as their team cracks up. "They're the dinos."

"Conner," he introduces, offering his hand as well, hoping it's not sweaty. Jason might be a legend in ranger circles, but TJ is a legend _outside_ of the legacy. He was one of Earth's first unmasked power rangers, and he'd become more or less the face of the rangers in the years since, both through his own charisma and the fact that his red prefers peace and quiet to publicity.

The whole _world_ knows who TJ Johnson is. He smiles at Conner and ushers them all in, saying, "Heard a lot about you guys – Tommy's kids, and all that. Everyone's so looking forward to meeting the new team."

"Oh," Kira says brightly. If he didn't know her so well, Conner would have missed the sarcasm. "That's _fantastic_."

TJ grins. "Come on, let me introduce you."

-:-

Inside, everyone else is quickly claimed by their colors. Tanya calls Kira over to the yellows, where Trini and Aisha exclaim over her and Dustin bounces around in excitement at meeting _the original yellow ranger, holy shit, dude_.

The blues immediately latch onto Ethan, especially Billy and Justin who have apparently been looking forward to meeting 'Tommy's blue genius' for ages, while Tori and Blake follow him in amusement.

Trent and Cam end up in a circle where everyone is wearing different colors, so Conner figures they must be the sixths. There's also a corner claimed by the pinks, of which he only recognizes Kat. She catches his eye and smiles reassuringly at him. It helps, but not much.

Which just leaves him, Shane, Hunter, and a pack of red rangers standing in front of them, laughing uproariously at some joke or the other.

"Conner," Shane says, very, very quietly. " _You need to introduce us_."

"Me?" he whispers back in alarm. "Why me?"

"Because you already know two of them!" Hunter says, which Conner doesn't have a counterargument for.

"You know Dr. O," he mutters sullenly, but is saved from having to introduce them all by a man he vaguely recognizes from the video diary wearing a red and blue striped shirt coming up to the three of them.

"You guys must be the new kids," he says with a genuine grin. "We've been looking forward to meeting you. Tommy is a dick who won't tell us _anything_ about you guys."

This breaks the tension. Shane and Hunter smile and the reds start laughing again as Dr. O rolls his eyes from the middle of the crowd. Conner feels himself relax, just a little.

"I'm Rocky, by the way," he says, extending a hand to Conner. "Red, then blue. Dinosaur _and_ ninja," he adds proudly, as Conner shakes his hand. "And then, uh, shapes."

"That's just not right," Shane says, making them all laugh again. "You all gotta choose one or the other."

"Technically," Jason says, coming up and swinging an arm around Rocky's shoulder, "you never piloted a dinosaur, buddy. You got _thunder_ and ninja powers."

Hunter makes a face as Shane and Conner stifle laughs. "What?"

"Makes sense to me," Conner says, and Rocky grins.

"I like you," he declares. "Are you guys legal? We have beer."

-:-

Turns out, partying with the original rangers mostly just means drinking a lot of beer, even though he's not yet legal (Rocky works tirelessly to sneak him alcohol under Dr. O's radar), and occassionally bursting into sparring matches. And making fun of Dr. O, which Conner can appreciate.

"One time," Rocky says, halfway to being drunk, "he got himself kidnapped in the middle of the _ocean_ – how does that even _happen_? And then decided he was king of the machine empire and we all had to go save him."

"One time, we got a wizard to remove his mouth," Conner offers.

Rocky stares at him in long, contemplative silence, before saying, "Okay. You guys win."

-:-

At some point, he ends up with Jason and Rocky in the game room, with other rangers flitting in and out to play pool and coax food out of the vending machine or play the claw game set up in the corner. He's lost track of Shane and Hunter – last he checked, they were showing off their elemental powers to Wes and Cole, but Kira and Ethan and Trent gravitate in soon enough, as do Rocky and Jason's teammates, one by one.

"Did you tell him about that time he got crystallized in amber?" Kira asks, perching on the edge of the pool table and watching Rocky try and fail to hit the balls. They're all a bit too tipsy to be playing properly, or well.

"He… he got crystallized in amber?" Jason asks, alarmed. "What the fuck?"

"That was my bad," Trent says, leaning up on the pool table next to Kira. "I was evil." Kira pats his shoulder in comfort and he smiles brilliantly up at her.

"Aren't we all?" Rocky says with a snort, then points his pool stick at Trent. "You… have you met Ryan yet?"

"Titanium ranger? Raised by demons? Yeah, we talked," Trent says casually. Conner stares at him. "What?" he asks when he notices.

"There's a _titanium_ ranger?" he demands. "Man, I thought Ninja Storm had a weird color scheme."

" _Ninja Storm_ ," says a female voice he's not familiar with in tones of exaggerated disgust. He looks up to find Kimberly Hart entering the room. She steals Jason's cue and hits the pool table with it, narrowly missing Ethan who has taken refuge from the outside party under the table. "They have the most _bizarre_ color scheme I have _ever_ seen."

"Yeah, a blue girl and a yellow guy?" Rocky makes a face. "What's up with that?"

"Oh, don't be mean to Dustin," Trini says, from where she's braiding Kira's hair. "He's perfectly yellow. What I don't get is that they have a crimson and a navy, but no matching gold?"

"It throws the whole color scheme off balance," Adam agrees. "Also... what kind of ranger colors are _crimson_ and _navy_?"

Conner feels compelled to defend his friends. "Hey, we can't all have twelve different colors to choose from like you guys," he says. "What else were they supposed to call them?"

"Quantum," suggests Eric. Everyone turns to stare at where he's sitting nonchalantly in a chair next to the vending machine, eating a bag of pretzels. " _What_?"

"Hey," Zack says, leaning over Conner to point an accusing finger at Eric. "Only dino rangers allowed in here."

Eric blinks up at him. "I piloted the Q-Rex."

"That's not a real dinosaur," Ethan pipes up from under the table. Eric glowers at him and he sinks back down. "I'm just _saying_."

"Neither are mastadons," Eric says, rolling his eyes. "Only, like, five of you have actually piloted real dinosaur zords."

"I have a question," Trent says loudly, distracting them all from Eric's offensive statement, and points at Rocky. "How come you're red _and_ blue? That just… that doesn't make sense."

Rocky grins wickedly. "Well, kid, let me tell you a story of how your science teacher always had to be a glory hog…"

-:-

"You know," Conner says as midnight falls over them, though the party hasn't stopped raging, feeling drunk enough to start dropping truth bombs, "I used to hate you guys."

Billy looks at him curiously. The two of them are sitting on a couch in the game room, watching a karaoke battle between Zack, Tanya, and Kira, as they're being cheered on by their respective teammates. "How come?"

He doesn't sound mad, only curious. Conner relaxes a little. "Just.. you were all so _amazing_. And it was like we were just following in your footsteps, like we had the same story, and we could never live up to you guys. You were like legends and we were just high school students trying not to die."

He pauses, letting Billy mull over that, before adding, "Especially you."

Billy stares at him in surprise. " _Me_?"

Conner nods, nudging Ethan with his foot. Ethan, who has emerged from beneath the table to nurse a glass of whiskey at the foot of the couch, nods empathically and takes another sip.

"Yeah," he agrees, "you served with Dr. O the longest, right? Earth's first blue ranger, for three years, and then you left for another _planet_. Like, nobody else could get on _that_ level."

"I think Adam might have dethroned me on that first regard," Billy says musingly, but smiles slightly. "I'm honored, but I really wasn't anything special. None of us were. We were all just kids trying not to die."

"But _Aquitar_ wanted you," Conner says, leaning his head against the back of the couch and staring up at the ceiling. "That's _huge_ , right? Ethan says it's huge."

"It is huge," Ethan confirms. "How come you're back, anyway?"

"Well," Billy sighs, propping his head on his hands. "Turns out uprooting your whole life for love isn't always the best idea. I missed Earth. I missed my friends. So I came back."

"More like, we were all slowly dying without him," Kim pipes up unexpectedly from behind the couch. Conner jumps and turns to look at her, startled, and she grins at him as she leans between the two of them. "You have that, right? With your team? Like you need each other to function?"

"Yeah," Conner says slowly, eyeing Kira up on stage as she belts out a high note that makes everyone burst into applause. Trent cheers the loudest and helps her down from the stage, pressing a kiss to her cheek as she hugs him. The sight makes him smile, even though, just a few months ago, it would have made him want to hurl. But they're his friends – Kira, Ethan, Trent. He doesn't know what he'd do without them anymore.

"We all have that," Kim explains, trading smiles with Billy. "All of us, from our team to yours. I know we might seem intimidating when all you've heard are Tommy's stories, but what you gotta remember is that we're all the same, in the end. Just kids trying to save the world. We have our colors and we have our teams. We're no different from each other."

"You know," Jason adds, coming up to sit next to Conner, "we're actually jealous of you guys."

" _What_?" Conner and Ethan ask simultaneously. Trent and Kira appear in front of them, the karaoke competition having ended and everyone scattering in little groups through the room and outside with the rest of the teams.

"Yeah," Trini agrees with a smile, throwing an arm around Kira's shoulders. "You guys are the latest addition to a huge family. No matter what, you'll always have people at your back, and you know it. Back then, we didn't have the ranger legacy support system."

"Well, yeah, because you _started_ it," Trent protests.

"Yeah, we did," Zack grins. "We started it, and we expanded it, and look where we are now. Ten years of power rangers, and you're our newest team. We couldn't be prouder."

"You are such a sappy drunk," Jason mutters, and everyone cracks up as Zack throws a pillow at him, which promptly starts a pillow fight that pretty much consumes the entire room.

-:-

"That was fun," Kira says as the four of them head out to Trent's car parked on the street. "Like, more fun than I thought it would be."

"Also, more drunk," Ethan says, pressing a hand to his head. "I am going to have the worst hangover in the morning."

"You're a lightweight," Trent accuses with a laugh. Ethan shoves him and he nearly falls over into Kira, who steadies him with a Look at Ethan. "It was nice, though. I didn't know there had been so many evil rangers."

"I didn't know there were so many rangers who liked to sing," Kira adds.

"I didn't know so many blues were geniuses," Ethan says, making them all laugh. They turn to Conner expectantly, who stops in front of Trent's car and studies it thoughtfully.

"I didn't know we were a part of something so big," he admits, turning his head to look at the brightly-lit windows of the mansion. He can see the Space rangers, all six of them, standing in the doorway, waving as everyone heads back to their cars. The streets are full of rangers, old and new, with about twenty different colors between them, and all of them laughing and joking around.

"Wow," Ethan says after a moment of pause. "I didn't know Conner was a _deep_ drunk."

"Shut up," Conner says, and they all pile into the car, laughing. The stars are bright over Angel Grove as they drive away, and he thinks it's a good place to start a legacy, something to be proud of, something to love.

* * *

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